World Solve is a public institutional repository for identifying real unresolved problems across science, society, health, governance, economics, and local systems. Each entry is intended to be citable, inspectable, and actionable.
Mining plans advance without full understanding. Baseline research is essential.
Urban private schools vastly outperform rural public schools in resources and outcomes, deepening long-term inequality. Digital learning platforms optimized for low-bandwidth rural connections could help level the field.
Most households and farms have no protection against disasters, illness, or crop failure, deepening poverty cycles. Micro-insurance products bundled with mobile money could expand coverage rapidly.
Few companies list on local stock exchanges, limiting options for businesses to raise growth capital domestically. Regional stock exchange integration could deepen liquidity and attract more investors.
Current radioisotope thermoelectric generators rely on scarce Pu-238, limiting mission frequency and payload capacity. Developing miniaturized, high-efficiency nuclear or alternative power sources is vital for continuous outer-planet exploration.
Radio communication links offer extremely limited bandwidth for high-definition scientific data streams from deep space. Developing ultra-precise laser beam stabilization near the Sun is essential for high-rate planetary telemetry.
Hydrogen and oxygen boil off due to solar radiation in orbit, prohibiting long-duration storage for deep space stages. Advanced active cryocooling, sunshields, and zero-boil-off insulation technologies are required.
Navigating craft and rovers on the lunar farside or in deep space relies heavily on congested Earth ground antenna networks. Scalable lunar and deep-space autonomous navigation and timing constellations are needed.
Landers currently depend on pre-mapped terrain, which leaves them vulnerable to boulders, unexpected slopes, and dust plumes during touchdown. Ultra-fast optical-LiDAR terrain-relative navigation is needed for safe pinpoint landing.
Gravitational clustering of trans-Neptunian objects suggests an unseen massive planet beyond Pluto. Deep wide-field survey software and ultra-sensitive infrared observatories are required to pinpoint its coordinates.
Missions passing from the inner solar system to the deep outer cold face severe thermal swings that degrade instruments. Variable emissivity smart materials and active thermal fluid loops are needed.
Collecting samples from Venus or deep Martian canyons requires multi-stage rockets launching autonomously from foreign surfaces. Lightweight planetary ascent vehicles and automated orbital rendezvous systems must be built.
Standard lithium-ion batteries lose efficiency and fail at sub-zero temperatures without dedicated thermal heaters. Development of solid-state or low-temperature tolerant electrolyte batteries is essential for planetary night survival.
Constellations operating near distant worlds cannot rely on continuous control from Earth operators. Distributed mesh networks and collision-avoidance algorithms operating autonomously across dozens of nodes must be developed.
Traditional star trackers struggle when solar glare or local dust plumes obstruct sensor fields during maneuvers. Pulsar-based navigation systems utilizing ultra-precise atomic X-ray timing signals are needed.
The boom in commercial satellite constellations on Earth causes RF noise that bleeds into planetary science frequency bands. Strict international spectrum carving and transition to optical laser links are necessary.
While optical communication offers high bandwidth, cloud cover blocks laser signals from deep space probes to Earth ground stations. Dynamically routed global ground-station networks and satellite relays are needed.
Objects originating from outside our solar system pass through at extreme hyperbolic velocities with minimal discovery lead-time. High-delta-v interceptor platforms on standby in deep space orbits are required for defense.
Deep social stigma, severe shortages of qualified psychiatric professionals, and centralized medical infrastructure leave hundreds of millions of rural residents without access to mental health diagnosis or intervention.
Subsidized electricity for agricultural tube wells has caused deep water tables across Northern India and Northern China to collapse, threatening domestic drinking supplies and long-term agricultural survival.